Tenseigan Chakra Mode

Zi's words left even the hot-tempered Chi in a long silence.

Learning that the Moon's Branch Family had successfully rebelled and that the remaining members of the Main Family had all been wiped out didn't leave them without anger.

To say they felt nothing would be a lie.

But as Reanimated Bodies, they were clearer-headed now than they had ever been.

Clear-headed enough to see many things for what they were.

Perhaps the ending had been written into fate from the very beginning.

Broken walls and heaps of rubble—the past had become a tale of sorrow and desolation...

Even Aoshiki being struck down by that golden light might have been a destined turn in fate's wheel.

"Ao... give it up."

Chi finally spoke, his tone carrying a heavy sigh.

"Perhaps this is fate coming full circle. The blood feud on the Moon was the consequence of the seeds our ancestors sowed. We've paid the price."

"You've already carried too much for the family. There's no need to trap yourself in the nightmares of the past for the sake of that ruined body."

"Since you've been given another life, go see the mountains and rivers of the Shinobi World in our stead..."

"Leave the rest to the next generation to sort out."

The members of Rainbow Squad took turns speaking, like a stream washing over a stubborn stone, trying to wear away the deep-rooted obsession in Hyuga Qinglan's heart.

"..."

Hyuga Qinglan looked slightly dazed.

What obsession did he have in his heart? Whatever he'd once had had already been worn away during his more than ten years in the Branch Family.

What he truly desired was his own remains, which contained the pure bloodline of the Otsutsuki.

Watching the members of Rainbow Squad before him, looking so "enlightened," he suddenly found it absurd. He even felt like laughing.

"...If that's the case," Hyuga Qinglan said, taking a deep breath and playing along, "then help me one last time. Transfer your chakra to me and let the Giant Tenseigan purify me..."

But before he could finish speaking, disaster struck!

BOOM—!!

A sudden, violent explosion erupted overhead.

A dazzling beam of white light came crashing down, like a giant sword forged from light. In an instant, it flattened the entire cave and the mountain around it.

Before the world-shattering light of Dust Release, the members of Rainbow Squad didn't even have time to defend themselves before their bodies began disintegrating in the radiance.

—

"Damn Orochimaru! That bastard just won't quit!"

Ōnoki hovered in midair, his chest heaving. His once-pristine Kage robes were now tattered and covered in blood and dirt.

This retreat was a humiliation unlike anything he'd suffered in his decades at the helm of Iwagakure.

First, they'd been ambushed by a group of elderly Uchiha who had appeared from nowhere. Then they'd fallen into a trap set by a shinobi army Orochimaru had somehow gotten his hands on.

To preserve what remained of their elite forces, Ōnoki had been forced to abandon another batch of cannon fodder. He sent the two Jinchūriki off in separate directions to retreat, while he tried to circle back to the Land of Earth through the Land of Iron.

But as soon as they'd entered the Land of Iron, Orochimaru had latched onto them again.

"Father... what should we do?"

On the ground, Kitsuchi's voice was tight with pain. His left arm had turned a shocking shade of blue and purple, swollen until it looked almost translucent.

Behind him stood the battered Iwa shinobi squads, all injured, their faces filled with grief and despair.

"Take the survivors and cross the border of the Land of Iron at once. Take a ship back to the Land of Earth!"

Ōnoki descended lightly to the ground and roughly wiped the blood from his face. A desperate, cornered look appeared on his aged features.

"Things have come to this... Iwagakure and Konoha are locked in a fight to the death."

"Then I have no reason to hold back."

With that, Ōnoki pressed his hands together and gathered the last of his depleted chakra, aiming at Orochimaru, who was pursuing the troops beside a vast ruin in the distance.

But just as the white cube began to take shape in his hands again, ready to erase everything within a hundred meters, the cold, bright moon high in the otherwise still, snowy sky seemed to answer some kind of summons.

"BOOM—!!!!"

A visible beam of blue-green chakra plunged down from the starry sky.

Like an eerie emerald lit in the dead of night, it bathed the snowy landscape for a thousand meters around in a dreamlike glow, brimming with murderous intent.

Ōnoki, who had risen into the air again, stared with fear in his aged eyes.

At the edge of the ruins, Orochimaru also held his breath as he stood at the front of Konoha's forces.

Everyone fixed their eyes on the heart of the devastation.

"What... is that?"

At the center of the almost liquid blue-green chakra, a dark figure slowly rose.

Then a clear voice, imbued with absolute murderous intent, rang out from the ruins, openly targeting Ōnoki in the air.

"Kekkei Tōta... Dust Release..."

"To think that you Kage have reduced chakra to such a wasteful tool. Pathetic."

He rose into the air, as if freed from the pull of the earth, his long hair whipping wildly behind him in the raging currents.

"I'd intended to observe for a little longer..."

"But it seems there's no need to wait..."

As he calmly formed the "Ram" hand seal before his chest, a terrifying aura spread out in a ring from the dark figure, crashing in every direction.

The winter night, which should have been silent, shuddered beneath the strange fluctuations of chakra.

"That's...?!" Orochimaru's pupils shrank as he stared at the figure, which was beginning to resemble the wanted poster Konoha had drawn.

"Ao!"

A cry of shock, trembling with disbelief, cut through the tense air.

Hyuga Hiashi arrived with the members of the Hyuga Branch Family.

After learning of the victory on the main battlefield, he'd quickly notified his clan and told them not to evacuate.

He'd planned to take advantage of the pursuit of the Iwa forces to help the Hyuga Clan earn another victory.

He hadn't expected to run straight into such a dazzling sight.

That black robe, impervious to the Byakugan's vision, again...

"It's him again!"

"Why is he here?!"

The Branch Family members behind him sucked in sharp breaths, fear spreading like a plague.

Several shinobi whose hands and feet Ao had broken not long ago turned deathly pale and instinctively backed away.

But most of the Uchiha and other Konoha shinobi were completely confused by their fear.

"Who cares if he's Ao or Green? Anyone who gets in the way dies!"

A vicious glint flashed in Uchiha Setsuna's eyes. He gripped his Ninja Blade, ready to charge into the air and cut the figure down.

"Wait."

A cold, authoritative voice rang out.

A slender snake had somehow climbed onto Uchiha Setsuna's shoulder, its icy scales pressed against his neck.

Uchiha Setsuna tensed. He was about to demand an explanation, but the moment he met those sinister, slit-pupiled eyes, he stopped in his tracks.

If he backed Orochimaru...

Perhaps that could be an option for the Uchiha.

Besides, the current situation...

Uchiha Setsuna's gaze flickered repeatedly, but in the end, he stayed where he was.

Orochimaru looked away a moment later, gazing in a trance at the figure in the sky as it began to change.

The black robe on Ao's body bathed in the blue-green radiance.

At last, the black faded away, giving way to a blue-green chakra mode.

Then a sphere that seemed capable of devouring everything silently appeared behind him.

One...

Two...

Three...

Just as the fourth black sphere was about to take shape, Ōnoki finally made his move.

This terrifying aura brought back the shadow cast over his heart by Madara Uchiha.

And his keen senses told him that this intense killing intent, almost tangible in its force, was not aimed at the Konoha army in the distance.

It was aimed directly at him, the Tsuchikage!

"I can't let him finish that technique!"

Ōnoki's face twisted as he rapidly formed hand seals, unleashing the last of his strength.

"Earth Release: Golem Technique!"

RUMBLE—!

As he spat out magma-like chakra, a gigantic stone monster took shape in midair.

"Earth Release: Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique!"

With the Light-Weight Rock Technique's aid, the Rock Giant's heavy, slow body became several times lighter, and its speed increased.

Just as it seemed about to reach its target, Ōnoki formed another set of hand seals.

Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique—ready to fire.

But before he could finish the hand seals, the fourth black sphere behind Ao, on the verge of forming, suddenly scattered.

"It worked... I interrupted him!"